The magnet plan emerged about six weeks after the school board agreed on a short list of options to consider before its Oct. 10 target date for a course of action.

Limited redistricting and the expansion of New Lebanon School are also being considered, after the board discarded more far-reaching and contentious possibilities at its June 20 meeting. Among the rejected options were full redistricting and reconfiguring the grades served by each school.

"We believe that what's here is aligned with the strategic directions the district has laid out," McKersie said. "We want to have strong options for all students. There are a set of schools most directly affected by the racial balance and overcrowding use, but we want to try to have this be a benefit for all students. Going with a choice-based option also allows flexibility."

The Parkway-North Street magnet proposal comes from a "work group" of administrators assembled this summer to evaluate options for improving racial imbalance and facility use issues. The team includes McKersie and the principals of Parkway, North Street, New Lebanon, Hamilton Avenue School and The International School at Dundee.

District administrators seek to research and design two new magnet programs to tackle the racially unbalanced student populations at New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue Schools, as well as overcrowding at New Lebanon, the draft said.

McKersie also said the proposal could take advantage of unused space at North Street and Parkway, two schools whose enrollments during the next 10 years are projected to decline, according to a report released in May by the Milone & MacBroom consulting firm.

Learning models, or themes, for the partial magnets have not yet been decided, officials said.

The district, meanwhile, is poised to hire a market research firm to poll elementary school families about factors that would persuade them to send their children to a school outside their attendance area.

No decisions about the design of new magnet models will be made until the market research study has been completed and shared.

The proposal also aims to help close the academic achievement gap in the district, with an emphasis on New Lebanon and Hamilton Avenue, the two schools that have generally posted lower standardized test scores in recent years compared to Greenwich's other elementary schools.

In addition, the preliminary plan would examine overcrowding at New Lebanon, whose enrollment has increased substantially in recent years.

No redistricting is included in the preliminary proposal, but the school board could still decide on a plan that features some redistricting.

The new partial-magnet framework would accommodate all students in the Parkway and North Street attendance areas, as well as magnet pupils from other parts of town, who would choose to enroll at those schools.

Greenwich now has magnet programs at New Lebanon, Hamilton Avenue, ISD and Julian Curtiss School. But the district's magnet-student total has decreased during the last two years, as those schools' enrollment of neighborhood students has grown.

At Tuesday's meeting, board members asked how the preliminary plan would help the district meet the state's racial balance mandate. They also looked at the logistical considerations related to its implementation.

"It's very important to have the actual numbers targeted for North Street and Parkway, so we can get a picture in our minds of what kind of movement we're talking about on a choice basis," Jennifer Dayton said.